


You don't want the side effects

by crookedspoon



Series: We're selling an image [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Hangover, M/M, POV Prokopenko, Secret Crush, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 07:25:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12954267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedspoon/pseuds/crookedspoon
Summary: A peek inside Proko's head while Kavinsky is out getting food.Companion toReality bites hard.





	You don't want the side effects

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galateaofthewestside](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galateaofthewestside/gifts).



> For the prompts 8. “I ought to be leaving.” from [this prompt list](https://crookedspoonfic.tumblr.com/post/165091689035/one-line-prompts) and #466 "Trap/Trapped" at slashthedrabble.
> 
> Oh look, another series! As if I didn't have enough of those. But, that's my way of navigating my inability to write chaptered long-fic. I just write a bunch of shortfic in the same universe. I figure that's better than waiting for another chapter forever.

Proko has never felt this mortified before in his life.

He checks his social media feed obsessively and mentally sighs in relief every time someone does _not_ mention these dumb videos that are making the rounds. It's like a traffic accident. You want to shield your eyes from the damage, but you can't move. Everything happens too fast. Your eyes are glued to the inevitable tragedy, witnessing it in full technicolor detail, as if disbelieving it's happening at all.

It's happening, all right. The people he follows post the same inane shit as they usually do, just that sometimes they're commenting on the videos Skov posted. What a fucking traitor. Proko has always known not to trust him, although if he'd had to guess the likely culprit, he'd have suspected Jiang, if anyone. That dude's masculinity issues are so pronounced he's not above kicking his own friends in the balls if it means they'll be more emasculated by it. 

Usually, Proko would roll his eyes and wish that Jiang would finally get himself the therapist he needs – even though Jiang would never _talk_ to anyone because talking about your feelings is gay or effeminate or whatever bullshit excuse he's coming up with that day. He has yet to understand that learning about yourself and how to deal is tough fucking business. 

Proko still hasn't figured out the dealing-with-it part. Generally, that's where the drugs come in, but getting wasted was what catapulted him into this mess in the first place.

The thing is, Proko thinks he has a crush on Kavinsky, always had, though he'd been trying to tell himself it's just the sort of admiration one boy has for another. It doesn't have to be gay. It doesn't have to be anything.

But now he's been caught on camera drunkenly kissing K and the whole school knows about it. Now everyone thinks Proko is gay and there's nothing he can do to convince them otherwise, because otherwise doesn't exist. It took watching himself make out with K to finally realize that.

The worst part is that K's not at all bothered by any of it, not the videos, not the congratulatory messages, not even the kissing itself. Because this thing that has Proko's stomach in knots, it means nothing to him.

 _He_ can laugh it off as a prank and punch a hole in Proko's heart in the process, no skin off _his_ back.

Proko ought to be leaving. He ought to be gone before K returns. He doesn't have the smallest inkling about how to face him now that he has a name for that achey feeling saddling his chest whenever he sees Kavinsky. He'd thought it was a side effect of dying.

But he's still too queasy to stand upright, much less drive back to his dorm. K will eventually come back and Proko will have to suffer the consequences of his actions, while K will remain blissfully unaware. For him, nothing's changed. For Proko, everything has.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Eurotrash" by Zeromancer.
> 
> Tumblr post for reblogging convenience can be found [here](https://crookedspoonfic.tumblr.com/post/168365726920/you-dont-want-the-side-effects-trc-prokopinsky). I'm also @crookedteaspoon on twitter and tumblr. Come say hi!


End file.
